§ Mr. ChidgeyTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs pursuant to the answer of 25 March 2004,Official Report, column 1031W, on Afghanistan (1) if he will list the (a) names and (b) locations of voter registration offices (i) already open in Afghanistan and (ii) due to open in Afghanistan before the September 2004 elections, broken down by province;[166123]
(2) how many people (a) have been registered to vote in the Afghan September 2004 elections since 1 December 2003 and (b) the voter registration offices will aim to register by the Afghan September 2004 elections; [166124]
(3) what assessment he has made of the (a) effects of the change in date of the Afghan presidency and parliamentary elections from June 2004 to September 2004 and (b) the reasons for the change. [166125]
§ Mr. Mike O'BrienSince the start of the registration process the UN has opened 232 registration sites in 8 regional centers (Kabul, Jalalabad, Kandahar, Herat, Konduz, Jalalbad, Mazer, Bamiyan). Many of these have now closed, having registered voters in their 331W particular area. Voters are currently registering at 83 offices in these 8 regional centers. The UN hopes to have used a total of 5040 registration centers across the country by August. No breakdown by province is currently available.
Up to 14 April, 1,812,815 people have been registered since December 2003. The UN hopes to register 10 million voters by September 2004.
The Afghan presidential and parliamentary elections will be held in September 2004 in order to allow sufficient time for voter registration and other electoral preparations in a country whose infrastructure and human capital have been decimated by three decades of conflict. I remember attending voter registration for the Loya Jirga elections last year at the football stadium in Mazar-e-Sharif and 1 was very impressed with the enthusiasm of the many people who were queuing to register—they wanted to vote.